SSTI is proud to announce that Oklahoma City has been selected to host the 2015 Annual Conference, October 26-28, 2015, at the Cox Convention Center.

Access the SSTI Webinar Library

SSTI’s monthly webinar series, Inspiring Thought, is an affordable way to stay on top of new ideas in encouraging economic growth. Miss a webinar? No problem. Past webinars are now available for purchase.

Download SSTI's 2013 TBED Trends Report

In 2013, a slow yet stable national economic recovery gave rise to many new initiatives across states and regions with a shift toward targeted and refined investments in the high-tech economy for quicker returns.

There are 50 areas of need for paradigm-shaping breakthrough technologies that would help stimulate sustainable global development, according to a new report from the Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab – The 50 Breakthroughs Study. The authors contend that decisionmakers, funding organizations, impact investors, and inventors should focus on developing transformative, breakthrough technologies in these areas instead of supporting incremental technologies.

California-based companies received about 56 percent of all U.S. venture capital dollars in 2014, the state's highest share of venture activity since the dot com boom of the early 2000s. Over the past 15 years, investment activity has steadily become more concentrated in California and a few other states. In 2009, about 67 percent of all deals and 74 percent of venture capital dollars flowed to the top five states. By 2014, those states' share of venture dollars grew to 80 percent, according to NVCA/Pricewaterhouse Coopers data.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to classify broadband as a public utility. Once rules have been put in place this summer, providers will no longer be able to selectively block access to legal content, throttle access based on content or services or offer paid prioritization of traffic. In addition, the FCC also voted to preempt state laws that impair the deployment of community broadband providers.

The Signature Report, an annual report on college completion conducted by researchers at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and Indiana University’s Project on Academic Success, identifies six-year student success outcomes and college completion rates by state for the cohort that began post-secondary education in fall 2008.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) was appropriated $7.2 billion in FY14 (not including mandatory accounts) of which over $6.8 billion (nearly 95 percent of NSF’s total appropriations) was used to support research and education awards. Over 1,800 institutions of higher education and other organizations received funding from NSF including 11,000 competitively reviewed awards according to a report released by the NSF. Other highlights include:

SSTI

Since 1996, State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI) is the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development, SSTI offers the services that are needed to help build tech-based economies.